Art can not only inspire, but also charm and even frighten. When creating unusual artists, they embody the most hidden images, and sometimes they turn out to be very strange. However, such creations almost always have many fans.
What are the most unusual paintings world, who creates them and what can they tell about?
"The hands resist him"
This creepy picture begins its history in 1972. It was then from California that I found it in my archives old photograph. It depicted children: Bill himself and his sister, who died at the age of four. The artist was surprised that the photograph was taken in the house that the family acquired after the girl’s death. A mystical incident inspired Bill to create this unusual painting.
When the canvas was presented to the art critic, he soon died. It is difficult to say whether this can be called a coincidence, because the actor John Marley, who bought the painting, soon died. The canvas was lost and then found in a landfill. The little daughter of the new owners of the painting immediately began to notice something strange - she insisted that the painted children were fighting or coming to the door to her room. The father of the family placed a camera in the room with the painting that should have responded to movement, and it worked, but every time there was only noise on the film. When the painting was put up for online auction at the beginning of the new millennium, users began to complain of feeling unwell after viewing it. Nevertheless, they bought it. Kim Smith, small owner art gallery, decided to buy something unusual as an exhibit.
The story of the painting does not end - the evil emanating from it is now noted by visitors to the exhibition.
"Crying Boy"
Mentioning unusual paintings famous artists, we can’t help but mention this one. The whole world knows about the “cursed” painting called “The Crying Boy”. To create it, he used his own son as a model. The boy could not cry just like that, and his father deliberately upset him by scaring him with lit matches. One day a child shouted to his father: “Burn yourself!”, and the curse turned out to be effective - the baby soon died of pneumonia, and his father burned alive in the house. Attention to the painting was drawn in 1985, when fires began to occur throughout Northern England. IN residential buildings people died, and only a simple reproduction of a crying child remained intact. Notoriety still haunts the painting now - many simply do not risk hanging it in their homes. Even more unusual is that the whereabouts of the original remain unknown.
"Scream"
Unusual paintings constantly attract public attention and even provoke attempts to repeat the masterpiece. One of these paintings, which became iconic in modern culture, is Munch's "The Scream". This is a mysterious, mystical image, which to some seems like the fantasy of a mentally ill person, to others - a prediction environmental disaster, and for some, a completely absurd portrait of a mummy. One way or another, the atmosphere of the canvas attracts you and does not allow you to remain indifferent. Unusual paintings are often full of details, but “Scream,” on the contrary, is emphatically simple - it uses two main shades, and the depiction of the appearance of the central character is simplified to the point of primitivism. But it is precisely this deformed world that makes the work especially attractive.
Its history is also unusual - the work was stolen more than once. Nevertheless, it has been preserved and remains in the museum, inspiring filmmakers to create emotional films, and artists to search for stories no less expressive than this one.
"Guernica"
Picasso painted some very unusual paintings, but one of them is especially memorable. The expressive “Guernica” was created as a personal protest against Nazi actions in the city of the same name. It is full of the artist’s personal experiences. Each element of the picture is full of deep symbolism: the figures are running away from the fire, a bull is trampling a warrior whose pose resembles a crucifixion, at his feet are crushed flowers and a dove, a skull and a broken sword. in the style of a newspaper illustration is impressive and has a strong impact on the viewer’s emotions.
"Mona Lisa"
Creating unusual paintings with his own hands, Leonardo da Vinci preserved given name in eternity. His paintings have not been forgotten for the sixth century. The most important of them is “La Gioconda”, or “Mona Lisa”. Surprisingly, in the diaries of the genius there are no records of work on this portrait. No less unusual is the number of versions about who is depicted there. Some think it's perfect female image or the artist’s mother, some see him as a self-portrait, while others see him as a student of da Vinci. According to the “official” opinion, Mona Lisa was the wife of a Florentine merchant. Whatever the reality, the portrait is truly unusual. A barely noticeable smile curves the girl’s lips, and her eyes are stunning - it seems as if this picture is looking at the world, and not the audience peering into it. Like many other unusual paintings of the world, “La Gioconda” was made using a special technique: the thinnest layers of paint with the smallest strokes, so elusive that neither a microscope nor an X-ray can identify traces of the artist’s work. It seems that the girl in the picture is alive, and the light smoky light that surrounds her is real.
"The Temptation of Saint Anthony"
Of course, the most unusual pictures of the world cannot be studied without familiarizing yourself with the work of Salvador Dali. Associated with his amazing work “The Temptation of St. Anthony” next story. At the time of its creation, there was a competition to choose an actor for the film adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s “Belarus Ami.” The winner was supposed to create the image of a tempted saint. What was happening inspired the artist with a theme that was also used by his favorite masters, for example, Bosch. He created a triptych on this topic. Similar work Cezanne also depicted it. The unusual thing is that Saint Anthony is not just a righteous man who saw a sinful vision. This is a desperate figure of a man, faced with sins in the form of animals on thin spider legs - if he succumbs to temptation, the legs of the spiders will break and destroy him under them.
"The night Watch"
Unusual paintings by artists often disappear or end up at the center of mystical events. Nothing like this happened with Rembrandt’s “Night Watch,” but there are still many mysteries associated with the canvas.
The plot is obvious only at first glance - the militia are going on a campaign, taking weapons with them, each hero is full of patriotism and emotions, everyone has individuality and character. And questions immediately arise. Who is this little girl who looks like a bright angel in the military crowd? A symbolic mascot for the squad or a way to balance the composition? But that’s not even important. Previously, the size of the painting was different - the customers didn’t like it, and they cut the canvas. It was placed in a hall for feasts and meetings, where the canvas was covered with soot for decades. It is now impossible to know what some of the colors were. Even the most careful restoration cannot remove the soot from tallow candles, so the viewer can only guess about some details.
Fortunately, the masterpiece is now safe. And at least him modern look carefully guarded. A separate room is dedicated to him, something that not all famous unusual paintings can boast of.
"Sunflowers"
The list, which includes the most famous unusual paintings of the world, is completed by Van Gogh. His works are filled with deep emotionality and hide behind them the tragic story of a genius unrecognized during his lifetime. One of the most memorable paintings is the canvas “Sunflowers”, which concentrates the artist’s characteristic shades and strokes.
But that’s not the only reason it’s interesting. The fact is that the painting is constantly copied, and the number of copies successfully sold exceeds those that other unusual paintings can boast of. At the same time, despite such popularity, the picture still remains unique. And no one really succeeded except Van Gogh.
There are works of art that seem to hit the viewer over the head, stunning and amazing. Others draw you into thought and a search for layers of meaning and secret symbolism. Some paintings are shrouded in secrets and mystical mysteries, while others surprise with exorbitant prices.
We carefully reviewed all the main achievements in world painting and selected from them two dozen of the most strange paintings. Salvador Dali, whose works completely fall within the format of this material and are the first to come to mind, were not included in this collection on purpose.
It is clear that “weirdness” is a rather subjective concept and everyone has their own amazing paintings, standing out from other works of art. We will be glad if you share them in the comments and tell us a little about them.
"Scream"
Edvard Munch. 1893, cardboard, oil, tempera, pastel.
National Gallery, Oslo.
"The Scream" is considered a landmark event of expressionism and one of the most famous paintings in the world.
There are two interpretations of what is depicted: it is the hero himself who is gripped by horror and silently screams, pressing his hands to his ears; or the hero closes his ears from the cry of the world and nature sounding around him. Munch wrote four versions of “The Scream,” and there is a version that this painting is the fruit of manic-depressive psychosis from which the artist suffered. After a course of treatment at the clinic, Munch did not return to work on the canvas.
“I was walking along the path with two friends. The sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red, I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned against the fence - I looked at the blood and flames over the bluish-black fjord and city. My friends moved on, and I stood, trembling with excitement, feeling an endless scream piercing nature,” Edvard Munch said about the history of the painting.
“Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?"
Paul Gauguin. 1897-1898, oil on canvas.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
According to Gauguin himself, the painting should be read from right to left - three main groups of figures illustrate the questions posed in the title.
Three women with a child represent the beginning of life; middle group symbolizes the daily existence of maturity; in the final group, according to the artist’s plan, “ old woman, approaching death, seems reconciled and given over to her thoughts”, at her feet “a strange White bird...represents the futility of words.”
The deeply philosophical painting of the post-impressionist Paul Gauguin was painted by him in Tahiti, where he fled from Paris. Upon completion of the work, he even wanted to commit suicide: “I believe that this painting is superior to all my previous ones and that I will never create something better or even similar.” He lived another five years, and so it happened.
"Guernica"
Pablo Picasso. 1937, oil on canvas.
Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid.
Guernica presents scenes of death, violence, brutality, suffering and helplessness, without specifying their immediate causes, but they are obvious. They say that in 1940, Pablo Picasso was summoned by the Gestapo in Paris. The conversation immediately turned to the painting. “Did you do this?” - “No, you did it.”
The huge fresco painting “Guernica,” painted by Picasso in 1937, tells the story of a raid by a Luftwaffe volunteer unit on the city of Guernica, as a result of which the city of six thousand was completely destroyed. The painting was painted literally in a month - the first days of work on the painting, Picasso worked for 10-12 hours, and already in the first sketches one could see main idea. This is one of the best illustrations of the nightmare of fascism, as well as human cruelty and grief.
"Portrait of the Arnolfini couple"
Jan van Eyck. 1434, wood, oil.
London National Gallery, London.
The famous painting is completely filled with symbols, allegories and various references - right down to the signature “Jan van Eyck was here”, which turned the painting not just into a work of art, but into a historical document confirming the reality of the event at which the artist was present.
The portrait supposedly of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife is one of the most complex works of the Western school of Northern Renaissance painting.
In Russia, in the last few years, the painting has gained great popularity due to Arnolfini’s portrait resemblance to Vladimir Putin.
"Demon Seated"
Mikhail Vrubel. 1890, oil on canvas.
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
"The hands resist him"
Bill Stoneham. 1972.
This work, of course, cannot be ranked among the masterpieces of world painting, but the fact that it is strange is a fact.
There are legends surrounding the painting with a boy, a doll and his hands pressed against the glass. From “people are dying because of this picture” to “the children in it are alive.” The picture looks really creepy, which gives rise to a lot of fears and speculation among people with weak psyches.
The artist assured that the picture depicts himself at the age of five, that the door is a representation of the dividing line between real world and the world of dreams, and the doll is a guide who can guide the boy through this world. The hands represent alternative lives or possibilities.
The painting gained notoriety in February 2000 when it was put up for sale on eBay with a backstory saying that the painting was “haunted.” “Hands Resist Him” was bought for $1,025 by Kim Smith, who was then simply inundated with letters from creepy stories and demands to burn the painting.
Art can be anything. Some people see the beauty of nature and convey it with a brush or a chisel, some take stunning photographs of the human body, and some find beauty in the terrible - this is the style Caravaggio and Edvard Munch worked in. Modern artists do not lag behind the founding fathers.
1. Dado
Yugoslavian Dado was born in 1933 and died in 2010. At first glance, his work may seem completely ordinary or even pleasant - this is due to the choice color range: Many horror artists choose black or red, but Dado loved pastel shades.
But take a closer look at paintings like The Big Farm from 1963 or The Football Player from 1964, and you will see grotesque creatures in them. Their faces are full of pain or suffering, tumors or extra organs are visible on their bodies, or their bodies are simply irregular shape. In fact, pictures like “The Big Farm” are much more frightening than the sheer horror - precisely because at first glance you don’t notice anything terrible in them.
2. Keith Thompson
Keith Thompson is more of a commercial artist than an artist. He created the monsters for Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim and Scott Westerfield's Leviathan. His work is done in a technique that you'd expect to see on Magic: The Gathering cards rather than in a museum.
Look at his painting “The Creature from Pripyat”: the monster is made from several animals and is terribly ugly, but it gives an excellent idea of Thompson’s technique. The monster even has a story - it is supposedly a product of the Chernobyl disaster. Of course, the monster is somewhat contrived, as if it came straight out of the 1950s, but that doesn’t make it any less creepy.
The SCP Foundation adopted this creature as its mascot, calling it SCP-682. But Thompson still has many similar monsters in his arsenal, and there are worse ones.
3. Junji Ito
On the subject of commercial artists: some of them draw comics. When it comes to horror comics, Junji Ito is a champion. His monsters are not just grotesque: the artist carefully draws every wrinkle, every fold on the creatures’ bodies. This is what scares people, and not the irrationality of monsters.
For example, in his comic "The Riddle of Amigara Folt", he strips people and sends them into a human-shaped hole in solid rock - the closer we see this hole, the scarier it is, but even "from a distance" it seems frightening.
In his comic book series Uzumaki (Spiral), there is a guy obsessed with spirals. At first his obsession seems funny, and then it’s scary. Moreover, it becomes scary even before the hero’s obsession becomes magic, with the help of which he turns a person into something inhuman, but at the same time alive.
Ito's works stand out among all Japanese manga - his "normal" characters look unusually realistic and even cute, and the monsters seem even more creepy against their background.
4. Zdzislaw Beksinski
If an artist says, “I can’t imagine what rationality means in painting,” he’s probably not painting kittens.
Polish painter Zdzislaw Beksinski was born in 1929. For decades, he created nightmarish images in the genre fantastic realism until his terrible death in 2005 (he was stabbed 17 times). The most fruitful period in his work was between 1960 and 1980: then he created highly detailed images, which he himself called “photographs of his dreams.”
According to Beksiński, he did not care about the meaning of a particular painting, but some of his works clearly symbolize something. For example, in 1985 he created the painting “Trollforgatok”. The artist grew up in a country devastated by the Second World War, so the black figures in the picture can represent Polish citizens, and the head is a kind of ruthless authority.
The artist himself claimed that he had nothing of the kind in mind. In fact, Beksinski said about this picture that it should be taken as a joke - that’s what truly black humor means.
5. Wayne Barlow
Thousands of artists have tried to depict Hell, but Wayne Barlow clearly succeeded. Even if you haven’t heard his name, you’ve probably seen his work. He took part in the work on such films as James Cameron's Avatar (the director personally praised him), Pacific Rim, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. But one of his most outstanding works can be called a book published in 1998 called “Inferno”.
His hell is not just dungeons with demonic lords and armies. Barlow said: “Hell is complete indifference to human suffering" His demons often show interest in human bodies and souls and behave more like experimenters - they ignore the pain of others. For his demons, people are not objects of hatred at all, but simply a means for idle entertainment, nothing more.
6. Tetsuya Ishida
In Isis's acrylic paintings, people are often transformed into objects such as packaging, conveyor belts, urinals, or even hemorrhoid pillows. He also has visually pleasing paintings of people merging with nature or escaping into magical land your imagination. But such works are much dimmer than paintings in which restaurant workers turn into mannequins pumping food into customers as if they were servicing cars at a gas station.
Regardless of one's opinion of the artist's precision and insight or the vividness of his metaphors, there is no denying that the style of his work is eerie. Any humor in Isis goes hand in hand with disgust and fear. His career came to an end in 2005 when 31-year-old Ishida was hit by a train in what was almost certainly a suicide. The works he left behind are valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
7. Dariusz Zawadzki
Zavadsky was born in 1958. Like Beksinski, he works in the style of eerie fantastic realism. His teachers in art school they told Zavadsky that he didn’t have much good vision and a poor eye, so he won’t become an artist. Well, they clearly jumped to conclusions.
Zavadsky's works contain elements of steampunk: he often draws robot-like creatures with working mechanisms visible under their artificial skin. For example, take a look at the 2007 oil painting “Nest.” The poses of the birds are the same as those of living birds, but the frame is clearly metal, barely covered with scraps of skin. The picture may cause disgust, but at the same time it attracts the eye - you want to look at all the details.
8. Joshua Hoffin
Joshua Hoffin was born in 1973 in Emporia, Kansas. He does terrifying photos, in which fairy tales familiar from childhood take on scary features- history, of course, can be learned, but at the same time its meaning is greatly distorted.
Many of his works look too staged and unnatural to be truly frightening. But there are also series of photographs like “Pickman’s Masterpieces” - this is a tribute to one of Lovecraft’s characters, the artist Pickman.
In the photographs from 2008, which you can see here, is his daughter Chloe. The girl's face shows almost no emotion, and she hardly looks towards the audience. The contrast is scary: family photo on the bedside table, a girl in pink pajamas - and huge cockroaches.
9. Patrizia Piccinini
Piccinini's sculptures are sometimes very different from each other: some sculptures are irregularly shaped motorcycles, others are strange balloons of hot air. But mostly she creates sculptures that are very, very uncomfortable to stand in the same room with. They even look creepy in photographs.
In the 2004 work “Indivisible,” a humanoid is pressed against the back of a normal human child. What is most disturbing is the element of trust and affection - as if the child's innocence was cruelly used to his detriment.
Of course, Piccinini's work is criticized. They even said about “Indivisible” that it was not a sculpture, but some kind of real animal. But no - it’s just a figment of her imagination, and the artist continues to create her works from fiberglass, silicone, and hair.
10. Mark Powell
The works of Australian Mark Powell are truly shocking. His 2012 show featured a series of compositions in which fantastic creatures evolve, devour and excrete each other from their own bodies, multiply and disintegrate. The textures of the creatures and environments are extremely convincing, and the body language of the figures is precisely chosen to make the situations seem as ordinary - and therefore convincing - as possible.
Of course, the Internet could not help but give the artist his due. The aforementioned "SCP Foundation" took the disgusting monster from the image above and made it part of a story called "The Flesh That Hates." There are also many horror stories associated with his work.
Do you think that artistic masterpieces Can you create with just pencils and paints? These 10 contemporary artists prove that any material under the brush of talent turns into a masterpiece, and sometimes even a brush is not needed - the most unpredictable tools are used. Some works amaze with their realism, others with the skill of the author, and some are created in such a strange way that they cannot but give a good mood.
1. Vinicius Quesada. "Blues Written in Blood"
The Brazilian loves to shock the public with his works: the artist creates his apocalyptic paintings using human blood and urine. There are only three colors in the paintings - yellow, blue and red. Author, in literally words, puts life into his work, since he uses exclusively his own blood as a material, releasing 450 ml of blood every 2 months.
2. Elisabetta Rogai. Paintings that only get “better” over time
Elisabetta creates her paintings using quite refined materials - white and red wine. Moreover, she uses it not as a source of inspiration, but instead of paints. The peculiarity of her work is that the color of the paints on the canvas changes over time, as the wine ages and acquires new shades.
3. Tarinan von Anhalt (Jet Art). Jet art from a princess from Florida
The American artist creates her abstract paintings using air flows from an airplane jet engine. Tarinan's clients pay a lot of money for the opportunity to see how the artist creates, because this process itself is a small show with a risk to life. For the creation of one abstract painting, a connoisseur of creativity will have to pay at least 50 thousand dollars. The princess also uses her Jet Art technique to decorate clothes, which she demonstrates at various fashion shows.
4. Underwater paintings by Ukrainian artists
Creative Ukrainian divers create their works at depths of 2 to 20 meters in the waters of the Black and Red Sea. Artists are so inspired by beauty underwater world what they came up with unusual way capture it using regular paint and canvas with waterproof glue. A whole group of artists annually presents their paintings at exhibitions in Kyiv. It is noteworthy that the number of followers is growing every year and “underwater painting” is becoming more and more popular not only among professional divers, but also creative people.
5. Natalie Irish(Natalie Irish). Pictures with “love”
The artist paints with kisses, and uses ordinary lipstick as a material! On average, one painting requires about five tubes of lipstick, and thanks to the modern capabilities of the beauty industry, the palette for painting is quite wide. The artist's first work was a portrait of Marilyn Monroe - it is with this actress that Natalie associates red lipstick. The artist admitted that creating her paintings is not an easy job, because she needs to methodically leave kisses on the canvas according to a certain pattern, constantly changing the focus of her eyes. One painting takes at least 3 hours.
6. Otman Tom. Creativity “with taste” or food as art
The Baghdad artist combines the pleasant with the creative and uses ice cream instead of the usual paints to create his works. His works are similar to watercolor drawings, have a wide range rich colors. The artist always photographs his work with leftover ice cream and brushes on canvas, thereby showing a small part of the process of turning his favorite dessert into art.
7. Karen Eland. Reproductions of world masterpieces and coffee
The artist creates paintings using regular espresso. Karen does extraordinary exact copies famous paintings, giving them a signature touch - a cup of coffee. Copies of works by Matisse, Picasso and Da Vinci came out of the artist’s brush so realistically that it’s hard to believe that they were created using ordinary coffee. The artist admits that she loves working in coffee shops most of all, as the warm atmosphere there is extremely inspiring for her.
8. Judith Braun. “Fingering” from an unusual American woman
The artist uses her fingers and coal dust to create her intricate paintings. It is this direction of creativity of the artist, who works in various techniques for more than 30 years, is extremely popular, especially the “Symmetrical Procedures” and “Diamond Dust” series. Judith herself does not consider her work to be art in its purest form.
9. Kira Ayn Varzegi Kira Ayn Varszegi. Why is the breast not a tool for creating paintings?
Apparently I thought so American artist, who uses her own breasts instead of brushes when painting. Abstract paintings are in great demand, and Kira herself is popular online. At exhibitions and modern galleries The creative artist has not yet been represented, but her paintings on the Internet are selling quickly and for good money.
10. Paolo Troilo. Monochrome paintings from an Italian self-taught artist
Paolo Troilo had successful business career, learned to draw on his own, and in 2007 was recognized as the best Italian creative. The master paints pictures acrylic paints without the help of any tools, just your fingers. Distinctive feature his paintings are monochrome, mysterious and realistic in the beauty of the male body.
